Episode Notes This is Receding Horizons, Episode 2, where we talk about the exciting era of gravitational wave observations and multi-messenger astronomy. Brina Martinez is an undergraduate studying physics and computer science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She is currently a research assistant at the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and in the Time Domain Astronomy Group operating the Cristina Torres Memorial Observatory, both under the mentorship of Dr. Mario Díaz. Brina is a published scientist. Her research focuses on characterizing noise sources intrinsic to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO. She has participated in a research experience for undergraduates at Louisiana State University under Dr. Guillermo Valdes and Dr. Gabriela González, and was a LIGO undergraduate fellow at Caltech under Dr. Derek Davis. Brina is a board member and resident astrophysicist at the South Texas Astronomical Society, as well as a board member and secretary at the Brownsville Chapter of the Society of Physics Students. She was the recipient of several awards including a scholarship from the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, and a Victor M. Blanco Fellowship from the LIGO Lab and National Society of Hispanic Physicists. She is a gifted public speaker, and I've had the privilege to work with her (and make a lot of memories) during my time in Brownsville. Recorded on 26 February 2021. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:01:14 - Excerpt from "Black Hole Blues" 00:02:48 - Brina Martinez 00:15:53 - LIGO 00:32:41 - Gravitational wave events 00:44:06 - Lacking belief and scientific leakage 00:52:37 - Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy 01:02:35 - Multi-messenger observations 01:13:27 - Scientific discovery 01:20:43 - Daily life at Livingston 01:24:10 - Analyzing thunderstorm noise 01:29:15 - Black holes 01:32:49 - Primordial gravitational waves 01:35:22 - Unification 01:38:02 - Singularities and horizons 01:45:03 - Distorting spacetime 02:00:20 - LISA 02:11:40 - Future plans 02:14:38 - Outro Related material: J. Levin, "Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space", Bodley Head (2016), https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27430326-black-hole-blues-and-other-songs-from-outer-space Gravitational Waves Summer School, L’École de Physique des Houches (2018), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo9ufcrEqwWG7TrsxBN5f4L5eX_ZxEhka P. R. Saulson, "Fundamentals of Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors", World Scientific (1994), https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11764374-fundamentals-of-interferometric-gravitational-wave-detectors G. González, "Gravitational Wave Astronomy", TDAG Astrophysics Seminar (2019), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vCTNuINq6o&t=4040s&ab_channel=CTMObservatory PyCBC, Free and open software to study gravitational waves, https://pycbc.org/ K. Mack, "The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)", Scribner (2020), https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52767659-the-end-of-everything B. Allen and J. D. Romano, "Detecting a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Radiation: Signal Processing Strategies and Sensitivities", Physical Review D 59, 102001 (1997), https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/9710117.pdf J. D. Romano and N. J. Cornish, "Detection Methods for Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Backgrounds: A Unified Treatment", Living Reviews in Relativity, 20:2 (2017), https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.06889.pdf J. Baker, B. Brugmann, M. Campanelli, and C. O. Lousto, "Gravitational Waves from Black Hole Collisions via an Eclectic Approach", Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol. 17, Number 20, L149 (2000), https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0003027.pdf J. Baker, B. Brugmann, M. Campanelli, C. O. Lousto, and R. Takahashi, "Plunge Waveforms from Inspiralling Binary Black Holes", Physical Review Letters 87, 121103 (2001), https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0102037.pdf J. Baker, M. Campanelli, and C. O. Lousto, "The Lazarus Project: A Pragmatic Approach to Binary Black Hole Evolutions", Physical Review D 65, 044001 (2005), https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0104063.pdf G. Hallinan, A. Corsi, et al., "A Radio Counterpart to a Neutron Star Merger", Science, Vol. 358, Issue 6370, pp. 1579-1583 (2017), https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.05435.pdf H.-Y. Chen et al., "Distance Measures in Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics and Cosmology", Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol. 38, Number 5, 055010 (2021), https://arxiv.org/pdf/1709.08079.pdf B. Allen et al., "FINDCHIRP: An Algorithm for Detection of Gravitational Waves from Inspiraling Compact Binaries" Physical Review D 85, 122006 (2012), https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0509116.p... K. Jani and A. Loeb, "Gravitational-Wave Lunar Observatory for Cosmology" (2020), https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.08550.pdf
